Victims of Nimbo Read Online Free PDF Page B

can’t climb a vine like that!” Sarah said.
    “No. I didn’t think you could.” Hanging on easily by one hand, he whistled again and then slid back down to the ground. “For old people and babies we have to make other arrangements. And for girls too, it seems. Although our own females can climb the vines almost as well as men.”
    The two girls kept looking upward, and Sarah saw something descending. It came down in fits and jerks, and when it finally came completely into her vision, she exclaimed, “Why, it’s a basket!”
    There were two of them, each about the size of a large barrel back in OldWorld. Vines were attached to them, and they landed on the ground with a thump.
    “There you are, Sarah. This one’s for you,” Teanor said. “And you get into that one, Abbey.”
    “You mean they’re going to pull us up?”
    “There’s no other way to get there, and you can’t stay here!”
    At once Abbey, who had little fear of heights, jumped into her basket. “Get in, Sarah. It’s just like an elevator.”
    Sarah swallowed hard and said, “All right. I suppose I’ll have to.”
    “You’re afraid of going up high?” Teanor asked with astonishment. “I never knew anybody who was afraid of heights.”
    “I’m not afraid. I’m just careful,” Sarah said defiantly. Slowly she put herself into the basket and held onto the edge of it until her knuckles turned white. “All right,” she whispered. “I guess I’m ready.”
    Teanor whistled another signal, somewhat different from the others, and Sarah gave a short cry as her basket suddenly lurched. Then it started rising, and she closed her eyes.
    Abbey, however, seemed delighted. “Look, Sarah!” she cried. “You’re missing it all!”
    Sarah cautiously opened her eyes and looked. The ground seemed to be very far below them. Her basket kept rising steadily, although rather jerkily. She watched the ground slowly fall away from her. But she hung on and glanced upward.
    Teanor was climbing a vine above them, as easily as he had moved along the ground. The muscles in his back and arms were well developed. He smiled down at her and then waited until her basket reached his level. “So how do you like it, Sarah?”
    “It’s—it’s fine,” she managed to say. She did notwant to show fear, and she forced herself to look down again. It was indeed a beautiful sight, with the majestic trees rising everywhere and the green ground underneath.
    “Look above you, Sarah!” Abbey suddenly yelled.
    Sarah turned her head upward and saw what seemed to be a platform built on a huge limb extending outward from the trunk. There were large square openings here and there in it, and she saw that the vine that pulled her basket disappeared into one of them. Not knowing what to expect, she held onto the side of the basket as it passed through one opening at the same time Abbey’s basket was drawn up through another.
    A small group of people was gathered on the platform, and two men seized Sarah’s basket and set it down with a thump.
    Teanor appeared suddenly. He gave himself a flip off his vine and landed on the very edge. Sarah gasped. She knew it was hundreds of feet to the ground, but he seemed to have no fear at all.
    Teanor, however, saw the alarm in her eyes. “It’s all right, Sarah,” he said. “You’re in my home now. Welcome to the land of the Cloud People!”
     

5
A Strange City
    S arah and Abbey stood on the tree platform. It was made of small saplings fastened together with vines. For a moment Sarah became almost ill, for, in spite of the size of the trees, she could feel the platform swaying under her. A brisk breeze rustled through the glossy green leaves that formed the canopy overhead. Looking up, she could see blue sky. Indeed, the clouds seemed very close, white and fleecy.
    Both Sarah and Abbey glanced down at the vines that had pulled them up. They ran through a wheel and an overhead branch, and the system had worked like a pulley.
    Like